The ProBindingSource control is one of the controls that does not have a visual representation on a user interface. It is not a control that the end user directly interacts with. However, the Visual Designer represents the ProBindingSource (and other non-visual controls) by an icon and a label in a panel (the non-visual control tray) below the form. This panel allows you to see what non-visual controls are associated with a form without intruding on the graphical layout of the form.

Note: In this section, you will add a ProBindingSource to customerForm.cls by dragging the ProBindingSource from the Toolbox to the Customer form. An alternative to this procedure is to drag tables from the DB Structure view to the form. Another alternative is to drag an ABL source file containing a schema definition (such as a ProDataSet) to the form. All three methods start the ProBindingSource Designer where you can define the schema of the data source.

If you want to experiment with these alternatives, first read Creating a binding source object in the Visual Designer's online help.

To add a ProBindingSource control to customerForm:

  1. With customerForm.cls open in the Visual Designer canvas, expand the OpenEdge Controls control group in the Toolbox, as shown in the following illustration:


  2. Drag and drop ProBindingSource on the Customer form.

    Because the ProBindingSource is a non-visual control (that is, it does not occupy any real estate in an application window), it appears in a panel below the Customer window. In addition, the ProBindingSource Designer appears, as shown in the following illustration: